Some crooked individuals pretend to have been hit by a passing car or bicycle with the intention of mulcting their unsuspecting victims. Fortunately, there are people like 71-year-old Mo (inset) who stand up for what is right. Photos: Baidu

Lending a helping hand gets girl into trouble in Lianjiang

Do good to strangers, and expect nothing in return, our elders tell us.

But what if a stranger asks us for something in return for helping them?

That’s exactly what happened to a 12-year-old girl from Lianjiang City in southern China’s Guangdong province when she tried to help a middle-aged woman who fell from her bike.

The girl was pedalling along Anpu Construction Avenue at around 4 p.m. on Oct. 31 when she saw a woman in her 50s suddenly fall from her bike, Zhanjiang Evening News reports.

At this point the girl was about 2 meters away from the woman. She immediately jumped off her bike to help her get up.

She even started picking up the woman’s items that spilled on the ground.

But instead of thanking her, the woman suddenly seized the girl by the arm, and accused her of knocking her down. She asked for compensation.

The girl was taken aback, not knowing how to respond. The woman had either lost her mind or set up the whole scheme to take advantage of the kindness of strangers.

Fortunately, an old man happened to witness the incident.

Seeing that the woman was apparently trying to extort money from the girl, the 71-year-old passerby surnamed Mo came forward and accused the woman of fraud.

“Why are you doing this? The girl had nothing to do with you falling! I saw everything myself,” he told the woman, and asked the girl to leave immediately.

The woman, seeing that the girl had left, turned her ire on the old man and asked him to pay her for the “accident”.

But Mo said if he had to he would go to the police.

Other passers-by stood by him and accused the woman of fraud.

The woman soon left on her own.

The incident is not uncommon in some parts of China, especially in crowded city streets, where unscrupulous individuals pretend to have been hit by cars and fall on the ground with the intention of ripping off unsuspecting motorists.

The incident was reported on social media, and netizens praised Mo for standing up for the girl whom he did not even know.

Contacted by reporters, Mo said he felt it was the right thing to do.

He said if he had not intervened, the incident could have left a very negative impression on the girl.

In the future, she might have second thoughts about helping other people because of the way that woman treated her after she did an act of kindness, Mo said.

“Only if we all suppress the bad and encourage the good will this society become better,” he said.

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